Saturday 11 July 2009 19.01 EDT
First published on Saturday 11 July 2009 19.01 EDT

For walkers

Cabane du Petit MountetVal d'Anniviers, Switzerland

At the head of the Val d'Anniviers - regarded by the Swiss themselves as one of their most beautiful valleys - the Petit Mountet perches on a vast moraine left by the retreating Zinal glacier. This makes the final approach a steep one, though the view gets better with each metre gained until finally several towering 4,000m peaks are yours to ogle. It's a popular lunch spot for walkers from nearby Zinal, but overnighting in this classic hut (dorm beds, hearty food) means you're there for sunset and sunrise, and well placed for some of the most spectacular hikes in the Alps.

• From CHF60 (£34) half-board in a dormitory for four, six or 12 (00 41 27 475 1380; petitmountet.ch). All prices quoted in this article are per person.

L'AbricotineLes Brochaux, France

To skiers fond of the Portes du Soleil, the Abricotine may be a familiar lunch stop. In summer it's a perfect overnight on the massive GR5 trail, which crosses the French Alps from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean. When it comes to dinner, you're in good hands, with regional cheesey favourites done to perfection.

A long ridge separates one of the world's biggest ski domains - the Espace Killy - from one of France's loveliest and wildest national parks, the Vanoise. A network of huts enables hikers making a circuit of the park to stay high within its boundaries, and the Plan Sec is so perfectly situated you may want to make it the place for a rest day. Major peaks and steep lush valleys are patrolled by enough birds of prey to make a twitcher out of anyone, while the vogue within the park for using big fierce dogs to guard meandering flocks of sheep should put a spring in your step even at the end of a long day.

Though traditional refuges are overnight stops for walkers or mountaineers, this one is a destination in itself. Stay in the old refuge dortoir, in a yurt or even in the haybarn and spend the day exploring surrounding trails before returning to play boules or help out with the farm animals. Regular evening barbecues and music round the fire make this the jolly high-mountain stay you might hope for but don't always find.

In the high meadows of the south-central Swiss Alps, the Cufercal seems laughably tiny on approach. In classic mountain-hut style its Tardis qualities are a function of everyone sleeping together in dorms and cramming onto benches round cosy tables. Surrounding walks are family friendly and within reach of the Viamala gorge, the Roffla falls and architectural highlights in the valley, such as St Martin's church in Zillis.

For luxury

Hotellerie de MascognazChampoluc, Italy

Hotellerie de Mascognaz mountain lodge, Alps, Italy Photograph: PR

From the massive stone-slabbed roof downwards, the cluster of buildings that make up the Mascognaz seem utterly authentic, and they are, dating from the 1600s. Step inside and it's another story, a Disney vision of what you'd like a mountain refuge to be, but with taste. Seven rooms, super-cosy sitting room and fire, and even a hot tub, as well as a tiny restaurant. You can walk there, or be ferried up by four-wheel-drive, high above what pass for crowds in this part of the Aosta valley.

Just one generation ago, children from Niel had no choice but to walk to and from school in the nearest town of Gaby, 500 vertical metres below. Now a road of sorts winds up to the tiny hamlet of ancient buildings, a cluster of which - La Gruba - has been rescued from ruin and transformed into the perfect mountain bolthole. Original wood and stone in the minimal rooms are softened by contemporary furnishings; the bathrooms give no hint of former times (they're indoors, for a start); and for good measure you're at the start of one of the ancient paved paths, flanked by dry-stone walls, that were the region's major highways in years gone by.

Space tends to be an issue in traditional mountain refuges. There's plenty of it on the outside, but seldom much beneath the roof. The improbably named Las Vegas Lodge follows its namesake's tradition instead, putting just eight double rooms of American proportions into an area that would normally sleep hundreds, and each with a bathroom that would live up to the name over there, too. It's all chic, modern and as un-hut-like as can be downstairs, with panoramic views - you're in the middle of the world's most stunning mountains, the Dolomites, after all - without having to leave the sleek shiny fireside.

The designers of this mountain-spa-at-the-top-of-a-cable-car have triumphed, with interiors as serene as the 1,500m setting. Merging with the forest - and built partly of the same larchwood - the fluid form of the buildings is echoed inside where the mountain light and the view are never obscured from dawn to dusk. When they talk of eco-credentials here, including a spa served by the local spring water, you wonder why anyone would want it any other way.

The Austrians redefined quality ski lodging a while ago, but they don't rest on their laurels. Up in the Hochzillertal ski domain is the Kristall Hütte, reached in summer by car followed by a walk (luggage transfer available). With lower prices and without the distraction of skiing to divert you from luxuriating in your surroundings, there's every reason to stay - there are eight panoramic-windowed double rooms - even if you don't set foot outside and concentrate instead on moving seamlessly from sun terrace to sauna to award-winning restaurant.

For easy access

Refuge La Monta Ristolas, France

France's Queyras national park is the time-warp many mountain visitors are looking for. Talk about five stars to a local and he'll think you're referring to one of the highly visible constellations he enjoys on clear nights rather than a wellness hotel. At La Monta, your stay is a real part of your mountain experience rather than an interruption to it. Evening ambiance is pretty much guaranteed when you know you'll be sharing a 10-person-wide bunk with your fellow diners, even if you've only just met them. Easy on the garlic.

Near the top of Carinthia's biggest ski domain, Nassfeld, on the Italian border, the Berghof is more hotel than hut. But during the summer months you can have the mod cons without breaking the bank and without the extra cost of a ski pass. The standard mountains-in-summer format - hearty breakfast, walking, mountain biking, sauna and local dishes for lunch and dinner - is enhanced by the location. Even in a country renowned for its natural beauty, Carinthia stands out, a step back in time to a bucolic land of lakes and forest, gentle meadows and snowy peaks.

This capanna, tethered at 3,000m to a ridge of the Cristallo mountains above Cortina d'Ampezzo, is remarkable just for being there. Doubly amazing is that you can reach it without breaking sweat, using the ski lift that serves Cortina's steepest, narrowest piste. The basic rooms ensure a good night before tackling one of the classic high-level routes which start from the hut, unless a summer thunderstorm - at this altitude both spectacular and terrifying - puts on the kind of show no one could possibly sleep through.

The oldest Alpine passes invariably come with an ancient stone-built hotel at the top, guarding the route and providing sometimes life-saving shelter. The Grimselblick is a classic - half close your eyes as you look from your traditionally painted wood-panelled room and picture the early days when just mules and carts made it up here in the short summer months. Now it's a favourite with bikers (both motorised and leg-powered) as well as being smack in the middle of more walking and climbing than you could hope to do in a year.

At 2,315m and surrounded by the 22 3,000m peaks of the Hohe Tauern national park, the Rudolfshütte is squarely in the mountains. But it's also squarely in Austria, meaning there's a cable car to get you there and quality accommodation - real hotel rooms with bathrooms as well as dorms - too. Astonishing amenities including indoor pool and climbing wall, along with more obvious roaring log fires and hut-like ambience ensure bad weather days are not an issue.

For history

Hotel SchwarenbackGemmipass, Switzerland

Halfway up the Gemmipass from Kandersteg, the Schwarenbach Hotel guards the path linking the north of the Bernese Oberland to the south. The Schwarenbach was built in 1742 as a customs house, but today's hikers tread not just in the footsteps of muleteers but of countless writers and artists - Mark Twain, Jules Verne and Picasso among them, who stayed at the inn, beneath the peaks of the Wildstrubel and the Daubenhorn.

When he wasn't busy with the 19th-century Italian wars of independence, Italian king Victor Emmanuel II liked nothing better than a spot of chamois and ibex hunting. One of the Vittorio Sella hut's buildings is the original hunting lodge he used on the sunny flanks of the Gran Paradiso, Italy's only 4,000-metre mountain entirely within her borders. Now it's an essential overnight stop for hikers circling the massif or tackling the peaks.

Built in 1875 and named after mountain map-maker and polar explorer Julius Payer, the hut is an essential overnight on the "easiest" route to the top of the 3,905m Ortler. For non-climbers it's also a useful rest-stop and gives grandstand views of the toughest route to the top, via the north facing ice wall. Considering the altitude it's both comfy and good value, while the setting is nothing short of sensational - you can reach it by footpath, but to continue you'll need climbing equipment.

At 2,706m, Chamonix's easiest to reach hut is nevertheless a serious hike but it's worth it for the magnificent views over Le Tour glacier, the Aiguille Verte and the north face of the Chardonnet. Listen out for whistling marmots on your way. The glacier would presumably have been even more impressive when King Albert the First of Belgium inaugurated a wooden hut here back in 1930. That building still stands, though it is now used only as a winter refuge. The main, stone, building was added in 1959 and, like all the region's huts, is well used by alpinists in summer, making booking ahead, as well as earplugs and a willingness to be woken before dawn, essential.

At the top of one of Switzerland's improbable cog railways is a hotel that properly reflects its fascinating past. Downhill skiing practically began here and some of the world's most dramatic climbs - on the Eiger's looming north face - held crowds captive on the Bellevue terrace. (The hotel features heavily in The Eiger Sanction too.) Clubby Edwardian interiors and proper bathrooms full of enamelled cast iron complete the picture, with nothing, once the day trippers have left, to say you haven't gone back 50 or even 100 years, until of course you get the bill.

The Eiger Sanction too.) Clubby Edwardian interiors and proper bathrooms full of enamelled cast iron complete the picture, with nothing, once the day trippers have left, to say you haven't gone back 50 or even 100 years, until of course you get the bill.